Clish-Clash

The e-newsletter of the Scottish Local History Forum

October 2017 Meeting

22 Sep 2017 | ,

19 October 2017

At this meeting George Robertson presented “The Lost Village of Lassodie”, the talk originally scheduled for next April, due to the unexpected unavailablity of our advertised speaker.

We were delighted that George was able to present his excellent and informative talk at such short notice. More information about Lassodie is available in Georges articles “The Lost Village of Lassodie” and “A Childhood in Lassodie“.

 

As usual, we meet at The Abbey Church Halls, Abbey Park Place, Dunfermline, at 7:30 pm on the third Thursday of the month. We look forward to welcoming visitors and members to the second meeting of the session.

September 2017 Meeting

22 Sep 2017 |

Prof. Sarah Pedersen of Robert Gordon’s University, Aberdeen, gave a fascinating talk on the history of the Suffragette movement in Scotland. She covered the development of the movement from the constitutional Suffragist organisation of Millicent Fawcett through the more militant Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), otherwise known as the Suffragettes, lead by Emmeline Pankhurst and, in Scotland, Teresa Billington-Grieg and Helen Fraser. Prof. Pedersen presented a very lively coverage of Suffragette activities in Dunfermline and across Scotland including the demonstrations, interventions in elections and the incidents of violence against property. She covered  the whole period until the suspension of the campaign on the outbreak of the First World War and the partial success after the war, when voting rights were granted to some women over 30. Full emancipation was not achieved until 1928.

The topic inspired some of our members to turn out in appropriate dress, featuring the Suffragette colours of Green, White and Violet, or Give Women the Vote.

Photo of Pamela Macleod, Lindsey Fowell, Prof. Pedersen, Jean Barclay and Elaine Campbell dressed in Suffragette colours

From left, Pamela Macleod, Lindsey Fowell, Prof. Pedersen, Jean Barclay and Elaine Campbell

Sarah is Professor of Communication and Media at Robert Gordon’s University, Aberdeen.  Her research interests are focused on women’s engagement with media, whether that is contemporary digital media, or historical newspaper archives. Her research on the suffragettes in Scotland is based around analysis of local newspaper archives and this summer Palgrave Macmillan published her book ‘The Scottish Suffragettes and the Press.

Robert Henryson

21 Apr 2017 |

At our April 2017 meeting, Dr. Morna Fleming presented a fascinating talk on “Robert Henryson’s Morall Fabillis”. She gave us an excellent introduction to this major work by the 15th Century Dunfermline poet, which stimulated many questions from the audience. She finished by giving us a couple of book recommendations and some website links “for further exploration”, which I’ve listed here.

  • The Testament of Cresseid & Seven Fables, translated by Seamus Heaney (Faber, 2008)
  • Among His Personal Effects, by Craig McDonald

 

 

May 2017 Meeting

21 Apr 2017 | ,

Our next meeting is the 2016/17 AGM. It will take place on Thursday 18th May, at 7:30 pm in the Abbey Church Hall, Abbey Park Place, Dunfermline, and will be followed by “Thirty Years of Fife Constabulary” by George Beattie.

George is an old friend of the society and contributes regularly to our web-site. He is also a good friend and former colleague of George Robertson, so is an ideal guest speaker for this month, as it will be George’s final meeting as Chairman. His talk will, I’m sure,  be very entertaining as well as informative.

 

April 2017 Meeting

17 Mar 2017 | ,

Our next meeting will take place on Thursday 20 April, at 7:30 pm in the Abbey Church Hall, Abbey Park Place, Dunfermline.

Morna Fleming will speak on “Robert Henryson, Dunfermline’s Medieval Poet”.

Dr Fleming first developed her interest in Scottish Literature through Glasgow University’s innovative M.Phil distance-taught course. She went on to undertake a Ph.D by research into the poetry of the court of James VI and I, examining the impact of the Union of the Crowns on the lyric poetry of the Scottish poets of the period. She has published widely on the poetry of James VI/I and his coterie, and is a frequent conference speaker on various topics, increasingly the poetry of Robert Henryson.

She has been the Secretary of the Robert Henryson Society in Dunfermline for many years, and is looking forward to seeing the promotion of the poet in the new Library and Art Gallery.